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From: punia@uvm-gen.UUCP (David T. Punia)
Newsgroups: net.analog
Subject: Re: Jacob's Ladder (High Voltage DANGER!!)
Message-ID: <248@uvm-gen.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Jun-85 07:57:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: uvm-gen.248
Posted: Wed Jun  5 07:57:51 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Jun-85 07:17:13 EDT
References: <72@biomed.UUCP> <344@moncol.UUCP>, <801@mako.UUCP>
Organization: University of Vermont (780a)
Lines: 32

While it is true that many of us have lived through being zapped by
HV transformers, AC power lines, automotive ignition coils, etc., 
don't be fooled into thinking, and PLEASE, PLEASE don't promote the
idea that it is a safe practice.  It is a very dangerous game.  The
human heart can be made to fibrillate (quit working right) with a 
current of as little as 5 MICROAMPS.  There are many variables, such
as skin resistance, source impedance, current path, and timing in
relation to your heart's rhythm that enter into it. Nonetheless, it 
can, and does happen that the right tickle at the right time will do 
you in.  PLEASE have the respect for high voltages that safety dictates!

With that said, I once built a nifty Jacob's Ladder using a discarded
neon sign transformer.  A friend of mine was tinkering with it while
hot and inadvertently touched one of the high voltage leads.  He dropped
to the ground and woke up half a minute later wondering what happened!
We used the same transformer another time to build a truly marvelous
Tesla Coil that would light a flourescent tube at ten feet.  I'll probably
have cataracts in another 20 years or so, but at those frequencies
the current is harmess to the heart.

-- 

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive;
but it is lightning that does the work."
                             Mark Twain 
-----------------------------------------
David T. Punia, Dept. of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering,
The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT   05405  
802-656-3330

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